Patsy Cline, Queen of Country gets her due in tribute

Patsy Cline was a mega talent, for her undeniable ability to sing and as a crossover performer who soared up the country charts but who also had several rock ‘n’ roll hits on mainstream radio.

“Patsy Cline’s music really doesn’t feel trapped in a certain era, and Cline brought country into mainstream with her success in the pop charts,” entertainer Meg McLynn said.

McLynn will perform a tribute concert, “Foolin’ Around With Patsy Cline,” on Saturday at Historic Everett Theatre.

The concert is presented by Purple Phoenix Productions, www.dduvallmusic.com/purple-phoenix.html, a company that specializes in tributes to iconic American entertainers such as Cline, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Bobby Darin and Rosemary Clooney.

The eight-piece Purple Phoenix Country Band will back up McLynn on stage.

McLynn said the concert will be a classy combination of great hits and great gowns, copying the style of the Las Vegas and Atlantic City showrooms in their 1960s heyday.

“This show fell into my lap, and honestly if I could put everything down and do nothing but Patsy Cline I’d be a very happy lady, wearing beautiful gowns and singing with a band,” McLynn said in a phone interview.

McLynn said she has been a fan of Cline since she was a kid growing up in New Jersey, when her dad listened to the country music radio station.

McLynn said she wasn’t so much a fan of country music as she was the talent of some of the female singers of the time.

“Those women really made their voices heard and had to stand tall to the men in the industry,” McLynn said.

McLynn said she doesn’t have a favorite Cline song but in this two-hour set, the audience will certainly hear some of Cline’s more than 30 hits which included, “Walkin’ After Midnight,” “I Fall To Pieces,” “She’s Got You,” “Heartaches,” “Sweet Dreams,” “Foolin’ Around,” “So Wrong,” “Faded Love,” “He Called Me Baby,” “Strange,” “San Antonio Rose,” “Anytime” and her trademark hit “Crazy.”

Cline is known as the Queen of Country Music, who became a star in a short six-year spurt from the 1950s to her death in the crash of a private plane in 1963.

She released three albums before her death, and in 1973 was the first female solo artist to be elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Her recording of “Crazy” was named the No. 1 jukebox recording of all time. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999. In 2002, Country Music Television named her No. 1 on its list of “40 Greatest Women of Country Music,” according to Cline’s biography.

One Cline song McLynn really enjoys singing isn’t a country song but a rock number, “Stupid Cupid.”

It’s the kind of song that makes you want to dance, she said. She’s going to try to turn the vast space between the stage and the first row at Historic Everett into a spot for people to dance.

“I have never played at Everett, but I understand it’s a beautiful old Vaudeville type theater so I’m really excited,” McLynn said. “I want there to be dancing in that space so I’ll be working to get the audience warmed up.”

McLynn is no stranger to working an audience. She has entertained audiences all across the country.

She received her bachelor of fine arts from Emerson College and headed to Seattle, where her first performance was at an awards dinner for Bill Gates Sr. Over the next few years, McLynn focused on educational theater until the pull of classical theater took her back to New York, where she received her master of fine arts from Columbia University, according to her biography.

She returned to Seattle in 2010 to focus on musical theater, appearing in “The Who’s Tommy,” “Pinocchio” and “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.” She has performed with Seattle Opera, Village Theatre and Book-It Rep.